Blantyre District Health Office (DHO) says the issue of expiry of some of the Covid-19 vaccine jabs has contributed to low turnout in its Covid-19 vaccination centers as some people have wrong perceptions that all the vaccines have expired.

Recently, more than 16, 000 doses of Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine sent by the African Union (AU) reached their expiration date on April 13, after arriving in the country and kept for three weeks.

Blantyre DHO Spokesperson, Chrissy Banda, said the district is registering a low turnout in all its vaccination centers, a development which she described as worrisome.

Banda said: “We are receiving a very low number of people in all our centers and we believe that people think that all the vaccines have expired but this is not true and let me assure them that the expired doses were removed and we still have another more which is still valid.”

Banda assured people that the district still has almost 3,000 valid doses to be administered in all its designated centers.

As of Monday, April 19, Blantyre district had registered 39, 554 people who have received the vaccine.

28, 172 people were vaccinated in March representing 71.2% while 11, 382 people have received the vaccine in April representing 28.8%.

Just a week ago, the district increased the number of its vaccination centers from the initial 10 to 20 as one way of accommodating more people to get vaccinated.